Hard hats are a mandatory safety item used in or around many electrical power plants, chemical plants, construction sites, warehouses, and other industrial sites. The requirements are often mandated through safety programs due to overhead hazards associated in these types of industries. Hard hats are intended to be a type of safety equipment that will protect the wearer from overhead hazards as well as from bumping one's head in areas where there are low clearances. There are, however, instances when the hard hat can act as a hazard, in itself. For instance, in most industrial work places where overhead work is being performed, workers are typically wearing a hard hat. If a worker leans over or bumps his or her head, the hard hat can, in many instances, fall off of the head of the wearer. This may cause the hard hat to become falling object and a hazard to personnel or vital plant equipment below.
A chin strap used with a hard hat is one method to keep the hard hat on a wearer's head. This method, however, can be uncomfortable and sometimes a bit cumbersome. Another issue is that the chin strap is in direct contact with exposed skin. When working in contaminated or chemical environments, items that are in direct contact with exposed skin should be laundered prior to donning. However, hard hats, even with chin straps, are not typically laundered. Therefore, if the hard hat is used in a harsh or contaminated environment, it can spread to the wearer's exposed skin.
U.S. Pat. No. 701,639 to Stamm discloses a hat guard device that prevents a straw hat from blowing away. One end of the retainer is hooked through the hat, and the other end is hooked into the lapel button hole. This system may have been acceptable for straw hats, however, it is not readily adaptable for use with hard hats. For example, without modification of existing hard hats, one cannot insert a hook into a hard hat because the hard hat material is too hard by its very nature and drilling a hole through the hat could compromise the integrity of the material. Also, the weight of the hard hat could pull through a lapel button hole, if the hat fell off of the wearer's head.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,236 to Pritchett discloses a hat retaining device that attaches at one end to a hat and at the other end around the wearer's neck. Such a design, however, would be undesirable for use with a hard hat because of the danger of attaching a loop around the wearer's neck when working in an industrial environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,887 to Yagi discloses a hat and retaining device having a permanent stopper affixed to the crown of the hat on one end and a clip on the other. This would also be unsuitable for use with a hard hat because it would require modifying standard safety equipment made to a particular standard. Adding devices to the crown of a hard hat may make it unsafe in an accident or otherwise compromise the integrity of the hard hat material.